General Electric Company’s (NYSE:GE) GE Capital Corporate Finance is the administrative agent for a $200 million asset-based credit facility for Furniture Brands International (NYSE:FBN), which is a leading supplier of home furnishings. GE Capital Markets was the joint lead arranger and bookrunner. The loan proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and also to refinance existing debt. Furniture Brands is headquartered in St. Louis and is a world leader in designing, manufacturing and marketing home furnishings. The company’s brands include Broyhill, Thomasville, and Lane.

Hewlett-Packard Company’s (NYSE:HPQ) HP Enterprise Services has won a five-year contract from Rolls-Royce, a leading supplier of power systems and services. Through the terms, HP continues to play a critical part in the Rolls-Royce information tech ecosystem as it hosts the Rolls-Royce IT applications from award-winning next-generation HP data centers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. Additionally, HP will manage the Rolls-Royce remote server and storage environments in France, Brazil, Germany, Canada, and Norway. Rolls-Royce expects to benefit from the highest levels of availability, security and flexibility through the standardization of HP’s infrastructure management tools and leveraging HP’s global delivery model.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) has reached a license agreement with Acacia Research’s Advanced Data Access LLC, which settles litigation brought by the latter that was pending in the Eastern District of Texas.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ): A major evaluation that has been released in the United Kingdom urges women and small men to reject an alternative hip replacement procedure called “resurfacing,” according to The New York Times. This procedure had “unacceptably” high failure rates in women along with higher failure rates in small men than with larger men. However, patients who received resurfacing hip replacements that failed have been barred by the FDA from suing device makers.

General Electric Company’s (NYSE:GE) GE Capital Aviation Services, its commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm, and The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) have completed a firm order for 85 737s, among which includes 75 737 MAX 8s and 10 Next-Generation 737-800s. This order, worth $6 billion at list, was first announced as a commitment at the Farnborough Airshow in July and permits up to 15 additional 737-800s.

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ): It is anticipated that personal computer vendors will offer entry-level ultrabook models at prices up to $699 to produce large shipment volumes, says supply chain manufacturers to DigiTimes, who add that high-end ultrabook models could be priced above $1,000 in order to maintain profitability in 2013.

Intel Corporation’s (NASDAQ:INTC) investment unit Intel Capital has reported investments of $40M million in 10 tech start-ups and firms, which include Hungama.com from India, according to The Economic Times. They are investing in new technologies coming forward in such areas as consumer internet, cloud computing, and digital media.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM): The Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS) is among banks being investigated by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in regards to the sale of mortgage-backed bonds prior to the financial crisis, according to The Telegraph. Schneiderman had previously brought a lawsuit against JP Morgan which alleged that Bear Stearns missold billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed bonds before the crisis and later commented that cases against other banks would probably follow.

The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) and GE Capital Aviation Services, the commercial aircraft leasing and financing unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), have completed a firm order for 85 737s, among which includes 75 737 MAX 8s and 10 Next-Generation 737-800s. This order, worth $6 billion at list, was first announced as a commitment at the Farnborough Airshow in July and permits up to 15 additional 737-800s.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) reports that traders and analysts are exiting the top banks so as to join asset managers and other financial firms that are under fewer constraints on risk-taking, according to The Financial Times.

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) intends to shut down a portion of its Decatur operations for a week in November and all of December, says the Associated Press. However, the firm says that not all of its Decatur employees will be affected and also calls the layoffs “temporary”.

Cisco Systems. (NASDAQ:CSCO) introduces a unified networking solution that was designed to provide wired, wireless and private networks under a single policy and management umbrella and is intended to help enterprises handle the fast growth of traffic on their networks and problems associated with the bring-your-own-device trend. Cisco officials will be exhibiting the latest additions to its Unified Access solution at the Interop 2012 show in New York this week. The solution includes features that enable employees to get their personal mobile devices – smartphones and tablets in particular – more easily and securely onto the network which removes the burden from the IT staff and also to bring wired and wireless, campus and branch networks into a single system, which should make them easier to design, deploy and manage.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) and Samsung (SSNLF) have pulled their advertising back from Zing.vn, which is a Vietnamese website that has provided unlicensed downloads of songs, according to the Associated Press.

3M Company (NYSE:MMM) said that the new structure will be comprised of five business groups: Consumer with 2011 sales of $4.2 billion; Industrial with$9.6 billion); Health Care with $5.0 billion; along with two newly formed business groups, Safety & Graphics, with $5.5 billion); and Electronics & Energy having $5.7 billion in 2011 sales. Prior to this, the firm operated six major business segments. The new structure is effective immediately with the segments starting to report for the new organization effective January 1st.

Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) has reported Phase IIb data for MK-3102, its investigational once-weekly DPP-4 inhibitor which is in development for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The data indicates that MK-3102 significantly lowered blood sugar in this 12-week study compared with placebo, with an incidence of symptomatic hypoglycemia that was similar to placebo, in patients suffering from type 2 diabetes. These data was presented Wednesday at the 48th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Berlin.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) ranked fourth during the three months ending in August in comScore’s list of domestic smartphone owners by brand. Google Android (NASDAQ:GOOG) came in as the number one smartphone platform having a 52.6 percent market share while Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose by 2.4 points to 34.3 percent. Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM) was third with an 8.3 percent share followed by Microsoft at 3.6 percent and Symbian (NYSE:NOK) at 0.7 percent. Device manufacturer Samsung (SSNLF) ranked as the top original equipment manufacturer, having 25.7 percent of domestic mobile subscribers. Apple continued to move towards the number two spot with 17.1 percent of mobile subscribers. According to the report, 116.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones during the period, which is up by 6 percent over the same months ending in May.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Lpath reached an agreement in 2010 which provides the former an exclusive option for a global license through which to develop and commercialize iSonep. Lpath has initiated the dosing of iSonep in its Nexus Phase 2 study, with several wet-AMD patients treated since Sept. 21st. Lpath plans to dose 160 subjects who have not responded completely to a VEGF inhibitor in the double-blind, multi-site trial, and has also worked with Pfizer extensively on design and goals of the Nexus Phase 2 evaluation.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ): Telefonica Global Solutions and Verizon Enterprise Solutions are partnering so that Verizon Immersive Video Exchange and Telefonica Global Telepresence Exchange customers can work together through Cisco TelePresence to meet the rising demand for video meetings. Currently, businesses and government agencies using either firm’s video meeting system can increase their “collaboration pool” and meet face-to-face across more video-enabled locations globally for enhanced productivity and business efficiency.

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT): Stephanie Lucy, Target Corporation’s (NYSE:TGT) vice president of toys, forecasts that consumers shopping for holiday toys will scan, purchase and ship them while in the stores, according to Reuters. Along with adding hundreds of exclusive items to drive sales, on October 14th, the stores will feature 20 toys at the front of their aisles promoted with signs featuring QR codes; shoppers equipped with smart phones can scan the codes to purchase any of those items and have them shipped free of charge.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) reported top-line data which assesses immunogenicity, tolerability, and safety of Prevenar 13 in adults from18 to 49 years of age. These data back a recent regulatory submission for the expansion of the indication of Prevenar 13 in the European Union to include adults between 18 and 49 years old and will be used in support of similar planned submissions in other countries globally in the future. The primary objective of this evaluation was to show that the immune response to Prevenar 13 in the cited group is noninferior to the immune response to Prevenar 13 in the 60 to 64 year old age group as measured by serotype specific opsonophagocytic assay titers one month following vaccination. This objective was met for all 13 serotypes in Prevenar 13, which is currently approved in more than 110 countries for use in infants and young children, and in more than 70 countries for use in adults 50 years of age and older. Additionally, Prevenar 13 may be obtained through the World Health Organization pre-qualification program for active immunization of infants and young children along with adults who are 50 years and older.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ): Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) Chief Executive Dan Hesse says that deals were coming in the wireless industry in which Sprint would be part. However, with Deutsche Telekom’s (DTEGY) coming merger of its American subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, and with MetroPCS Communications (NYSE:PCS), Sprint was outmaneuvered, which poses questions concerning whether it missed an opportunity to increase its scale so as to better compete against AT&T and Verizon Wireless (NASDAQ:VOD), according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) reported 172 new orders on its weekly update including GECAS with 85 737s, GOL Airlines with 60 737s, Turkmenistan Airlines ordering one 737, and 2 737s, one 777 and three 787s from unidentified customers. In addition, the firm decreased 737 net orders by 12 in the Changes category.

Bank of America Corporation’s (NYSE:BAC) Merrill Lynch is among top Wall Street institutions which is backing a stock-trading “dark pool” which agrees to resolve Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that the broker-dealer exBX LLC improperly shared confidential client-trading information with a division of Citigroup (NYSE:C), says the Wall Street Journal. Other banks in the group include Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS), Fidelity Investments, and the estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and Cablevision Systems Corporation(NYSE:CVC) have reached a new multi-year distribution arrangement through which to supply Disney’s line-up of sports, news and entertainment content to customers of Cablevision TV across Internet, television, tablets and handheld devices. By the terms, Cablevision will introduce a number of new services among which include the full suite of authenticated WATCH products, ESPN3 and ESPN 3D alongside the upcoming ABC News/Univision Joint Venture, which consists of a 24/7 news, information and lifestyle multi-platform network for English-dominant and bilingual Hispanic audiences. Additionally, Cablevision will also provide to its television customers broad access to expanded On Demand content via Disney’s comprehensive TV+ initiative.

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) Chief Executive Whitman comments that she is ‘very comfortable’ with make-up of the company’s board.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) and its team partner Bayview Financial are among competing bidders for Rescap’s mortgage-servicing rights, according to an inside source to The New York Post, which also reports that Ocwen Financial Corporation (NYSE:OCN) is partnering with Walter Investment on a planned $2.5 billion offer as well. Ocwen’s $750 million deal for Wilbur Ross’ mortgage-servicing division is a prelude to an offer for Rescap and other current bidders include Fortress Investment (NYSE:FIG) and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A).

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is said to have violated the law when it marketed its antipsychotic drug Risperdal for use in children and teens says former FDA commissioner David Kessler, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer’s PhillyPharma blog which cited court documents.

3M Company (NYSE:MMM) and Avery Dennison (NYSE:AVY) reported Wednesday night that they have terminated the agreement under which the former would have acquired Avery Dennison’s Office and Consumer Products unit. Avery Dennison intends to continue seeking a sale of the business while 3M is “disappointed with this turn of events.”

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) have completed their previously announced strategic partnership in NOOK Media which is a recently created subsidiary of the latter. At its inception, Microsoft made its $300 million investment in NOOK Media at a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion, receiving in turn about a 17.6 percent equity interest with Barnes & Noble owning the remainder. Barnes & Noble says that there is no set schedule for its review of strategic options for its interest in NOOK Media.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s (NYSE:BAC) MOVE index, which measures price movements that are based on the implied volatility of Treasury options, was at 59.8 basis points on Thursday. It dropped to 57.5 points on September 19th, marking its lowest level since May. Ciaran O’Hagan, who heads European rates strategy at Societe Generale SA in Paris, commented Thursday in a research note that “We expect the decline of implied volatility to slow down now, although volatility may keep trading at current cheap levels for some time. Those in need of a hedge should find current levels of implied volatility quite attractive.”

Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) has shipped the 500th D7E Track-Type Tractor from its East Peoria facility. The CatD7E contains a first-of-its-kind electric drive system that drives productivity and efficiency while simultaneously lowering operating costs and reducing fuel consumption. D7E dozers are being heavily used in a broad range of applications throughout Europe, North America, and Australia.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX): Alexander Novak, Russia’s energy minister, has told the Financial Times that his country is looking over proposals that would permit foreign oil players to not only operate Arctic offshore projects but also to have access to output and thus become co-owners of the licenses.

Hewlett-Packard Company’s (NYSE:HPQ) shares have no reason for being owned, says Jim Cramer subsequent to his interview with the firm’s Chief Executive Meg Whitman, as he maintains that she offered no justification for buying them. Cramer added that H-P will probably not be able to ‘turn things around’ until 2014.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) is among a consortium including ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and BP (NYSE:BP) which is moving ahead with a project through which to export natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope as energy firms search for more lucrative markets for the product. Currently, natural gas prices are at the lowest levels in a decade because of a glut on the market, but some parts of Asia have not seen this yet. The consortium’s project could cost as much as $65 billion, says the Wall Street Journal.